Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-04-01

be happy. "The spirit and the bride say,
come" Room in the ark! Room in the
ark!
But do not come alone. The text in
vites you to bring your family. "Come
thou and ell thy house" That means
/ your wife and your children. You can
not drive them in. If Noah had tried to
drive the pigeons and the doves into the
ark, he would only have scattered them.
Some parents are not wise about these
things. They make iron rules about Sab
baths, and they force the cateChism down
the throat as they would hold the cnild's
nose and force down dose Of rhubarb
and calomel. You can not drive your
children into the ark. You can draw your
children to Christ, but you can not coerce
| them. The Cross was lifted, not to
drive, but to draw. off be lifted up,
will draw all men unto me-" as the sun
draws up the drops of morning dew, so
the sun of righteousness exhales the tears
! of repentance.
| Come thou and all thy house into the
ark" Be sure that you bring your nus
| band and wife with you. How would
Moan have felt if, when he heard the rain
| pattering on the root of the ark, he knew
that his wife was outside in the storm?
No; she went with him. And yet some
of You are on the ship ''Outward bound"
for heaven, but your companion is IN
sheltered. You remember the day when
The marriage-ring was set. Nothing has
yet been able to break it. Sickness came
and the finger shrank, but the ring stait
on. The twain stood alone above
a child's grave, and the dark
mouth of the tomb swallowed up q thou
sand hopes; but the ring dropped not
into the open grave. Days. of poverty
came, and the hand did many a harl
days work, but the rubolng Of the work
against the ring only made it shine
brighter. Shall that ring ever be LOST?
Will the iron clang of the sepulcher gate
crush it forever? [ pray God that you
who have been married on earth may be
together in heaven. On! by the quiet
Hiss of your earthly home; by the babes
cradle; by ell the vows Of that day whe n
you started life together, l beg you to
see to it that you both get into the ark.
Come in, and bring your wife or your
husband with you-not by frettiag aDout
religion, or Gingdonging them about re-
llgion, but by consistent life, and by
compelling PRAYER that shall bring the
throne of God down into your bedroom.
Better live IN the smallest house in
Brooklyn aud get into heaven than live
fifty years in the finest house on Madison
square, and wake up at last and find that
one of you, for all eternity, is outside the
ark. Go home tonight; lock the door
# your room; take up he Bible and read
it together, and then knee down and
commend your souls TO Him who has
watched you all these years; and, before
you rise, there will be a futtering OF
wings ever your head, angel crying to
angel: "Behold, they pray"
But this does not include all your fam
lily. Bring the children, too. God bless
the dear children! What would our
homes be without them2 We may have
done much for them. They have done
more for US. What q salve for wounded
heart there is in the soft palm OF / chiId's
hand! Did harp or flute ever have such
music as there is in a Child's "good-
night?" From our coarse, rough life, the
angels OF God are often driven back; but
who comes into the nursery without feel
ing that angels are lowering around?
They VINO die in infancy go into glory, out
you are expecting your children to grow
up in this world. Is it not a question,
then, that rings through all the corridors,
and windtngs, and heights, and depths Of
your soul what is to become of your sons
and daughters for time and for eternity?
"Oh!" you say, 81 mean to see that they
have good manners" Very well. 81
mean to dress them well if have myself
to go shabby" Very good. 81 shall
give them an education, and l shall leave
them q fortune" Very well. But is
that all? Don't you mean to take them
into the ark? Don't you know that the
storm is coming, and that out of Christ
there is no safety, no pardon, no hope, no
Ee8ven2
How to get them in? Go IN yourself
If Noah had st&id cut do you not suppose
that mis- sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet,
would have staid out? Your sons and
daughters will be apt to do just as you
do. Reject Christ yourself, and the prob
ability is that your children will reject
Him.
An account was taken of the religious
condition of families in a certain district
In the families of pious parents, two
thirds Of the children were Christians.
In the families where the parents were
only one-twelfth OF the children
were Christians. Responsible as YOU are
for their temporal existence, you are also |
for their eternity. Which |
way will you take them? out into the del |.
uge, or into the ark? Have you ever
made enc earnest prayer for their i'm !
mortal souls? What will you say in the |
Judgment, when God asks: "Where is |
George, or Henry, or Frank, or Mary, or |
Anne? Where are those precious souls !
whose interests | committed into YOUR |
hands?'
A dying son said to his father: ''Father,
you gave me en- education, and good !
and everything that the world |
could do for ne; but, father, you never
told me how to die, and now my soul is
going out in the darkness"
Go home and erect family altar. You
may break down in your prayer. But
never mind, God will take what you
mean, whether you express it inteuigibly
Or not. Bring all your house into the
ark. Is there one son whom you have
given up? Is he SO dissipated that you
nave stopped counseling and praying?
Give him up? How dare you give him up7
Did God ever give thee no? Whilst thou
last single articulation Of speech left,
cease not to pray for the return'of that
1rodigal. He may even now be standing
IN the beach of Hong Kong or Madras,
return TO his fathers house.
Give him up? Never give him up. Has
God promised to hear thy prayer only t.
mock thee? It is not too late.
In St. Paul's, London, there is wills
voice uttured most
eebly at one side Of the gallery is heard
distinctly at the opposite side, great dis
ance off. So, every word of earnest
prayer goes all around the earth, and